my son used a DeLorme InReach SE for 3 years when he was living and riding (alone much of the time) out in Nevada; he was very impressed.
He never (quite) had cause to use the SOS function, but used all the other functions and did need, on a number of occasions, to make calls when there was no phone coverage. He also paired it to his phone to download maps and use as a nav aid. The tracking feature allowed people to keep up to date with where he was riding, just in case.
Reliability was spot on. It was several years ago, so I have no info on current costs.
Garmin have since bought out DeLorme, and tech has moved on several years, so the current Garmin offerings should be at least as good and probably a deal better.
I don't think I'd bother with one in UK but, if you're riding in remote areas of the world with no mobile coverage, they really do come into their own.
-- Edited by cee-b on Saturday 11th of April 2020 08:54:54 PM
Simon p, On here had an inreach tracker,when we were in France very accurate and the wife's could see where we were/gone each day.. Not sure if it was a good thing or not, At least it didn't show who we met..
I have the Inreach Explorer + as crumbles says you can invite as many people as you want to track you cost varies on the amount of text messages you want to send and the bread crumb drop, it also has detailed O/S maps all can be controlled by your phone , battery lasts around 5/6 days on one charge & I keep it in my tank bag . I only activate on a month by month basis at a cost of £35 ish which is 40 text messages and unlimited bread crumbs at 10 min intervals . I have never used the SOS button but know its there
I've got an InReach Mini, which worked well for a solo trip a few years ago. Didn't need the SOS feature, but it did allow me to check in and update the wife on a daily basis even when out of mobile signal, as well as giving her a live breadcrumb of progress. The way I see the InRach Mini is as a device to allow you to use your mobile phone for messaging on the iridium satphone network, as the interface to message through the phone (linked to the device) is vastly superior to trying to compose a message on the device. The InReach Explorer get around this with a keyboard, but for me the mini was perfect. There's an annual fee that you have to pay whayever tariff you choose and a monthly subscription cost (for me I used the flex plan that means I only pay for months in use) but it was a great peace of mind to have the device to hand just in case something terrible happened.
